Folke Bernadotte

Folke Bernadotte
Count of Wisborg
Bernadotte in the mid 1940s
Born(1895-01-02)2 January 1895
Stockholm, Sweden
Died17 September 1948(1948-09-17) (aged 53)
Jerusalem
Burial
Northern Cemetery, Solna
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1928)​
Issue
  • Count Gustaf Eduard
  • Count Folke
  • Count Fredrik Oscar
  • Count Bertil Oscar
HouseBernadotte
FatherPrince Oscar Bernadotte
MotherEbba Munck af Fulkila

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II, he negotiated the release of about 450 Danish Jews and 30,550 non-Jewish prisoners of many nations from the Nazi German Theresienstadt concentration camp.[a] They were released on 14 April 1945.[4][5] In 1945 he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected by the allies.

After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the paramilitary Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties. Upon his death, Ralph Bunche took up his work at the UN, successfully mediating the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and Egypt.

  1. ^ Persson, Sune (2000). "Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses". Journal of Holocaust Education. 9 (2): 237–268. doi:10.1080/17504902.2000.11087111. ISSN 1359-1371.
  2. ^ David Cesarani; Paul A. Levine, eds. (2002). Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation. Routledge. ISBN 9780714682433.
  3. ^ Ilan, Amitzur (1989). Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc. ISBN 0-312-03259-5.
  4. ^ Fox, Frank. "A Jew talks to Himmler". Archived from the original on 2011-03-21.
  5. ^ Macintyre, Donald (2008-09-18). "Israel's forgotten hero: The assassination of Count Bernadotte–and the death of peace". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2008-12-11.


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